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Picture source: David Gormley

The Southport Arms was situated at 1 Chapel Lane.  In 1932, the Sutton Courtenay Angling Club (SCAC) was formed at the pub to retain local fishing for local anglers at the nearby Thames.

Opposite “The Croft” a house at No. 1 High Street, this is likely to be an original part of The Lane. The closed pub is out of sight around the corner to the left. Morland purchased the pub and attached land. The surplus land was used to build 7 cottages, further building including a chapel led to The Lane being extended. Although still No. 1 Chapel Lane the only direct connection appears to be a narrow path between gardens. Local history says the beerhouse had no name until 1877 when the house and some adjoining plots of land were purchased by a Mr Saxby hailing from Birkdale Park, Southport, Lancashire, hence the new pub name. He appears to have been moneyed enough to purchase a florist shop in James Street, Oxford. Converting it into a pub once called the Red, White and Blue. His family would go on to own the Stert Street Brewery (and an estate of 8 pubs) in Abingdon under the name H. B. Saxby & Co. They sold up to Morland of Abingdon c1889. Morland kept the Oxford pub it is now a Greene King house The James Street Tavern. By 1927 in Sutton Courtenay the area was being referred to as The (Chapel) Lane. Not sure when the pub closed, but change of use to a private dwelling house was granted December 1963.

David Courtenay (March 2026)

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